In a new study from Southern Medical University, researchers found that people who had frequent depressive symptoms were more likely to later experience a rapid decline in kidney function.
Depression is a common condition in middle-aged and older adults, and it can contribute to a variety of mental and physical problems.
CKD is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease, kidney failure, and mortality worldwide.
Therefore, the identification of more modifiable risk factors may possibly reduce the huge burden of CKD and its related complications by leading to early detection and prevention.
Previous research has found a link between depressive symptoms and rapid kidney function decline in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD).
To look for a potential link in adults with normal kidney function as well, the team examined information on 4,763 people with healthy kidneys.
At the start of the study, 39% of participants had high depressive symptoms, and during a follow-up of 4 years, 260 (6%) participants experienced rapid kidney function decline.
There was a strong link between depressive symptoms at the start of the study and rapid decline in kidney function during follow-up.
Participants with frequent depressive symptoms were 1.4-times more likely to experience rapid kidney function decline than participants with infrequent depressive symptoms.
These findings demonstrated that high depressive symptoms were strongly associated with a rapid decline in kidney function among adults with normal kidney function.
If further confirmed, the results provide some evidence for depressive symptom screening and effective psychosocial interventions to improve the prevention of CKD.
If you care about kidney health, please read studies about too much vitamin D may cause kidney failure and findings of this drug may protect kidney health in people with diabetes.
For more information about kidney disease prevention and treatment, please see recent studies about common heartburn drugs linked to stomach cancer, heart and kidney disease and results showing that gout may greatly harm your kidney health.
The study is published in CJASN. One author of the study is Xianhui Qin, MD.
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